A Wonderful Partnership

By Marin Hanson
Curator of Exhibitions

We spent the morning at Xi'an Jiaotong University Art Museum, going on a tour of their beautiful new facility and having a meeting with the staff about possible future collaborations. At the meeting, we gave Vice Director Li a gift for their museum's collections: a nineteenth-century American Log Cabin quilt.

They reciprocated with a quilt for our collections: a thirty-year-old bai jia bei, or "One Hundred Families Quilt."

It was made by a woman in Gansu Province for her son, who was once a student at XJTU and is now an art professor specializing in Chinese calligraphy. This was a really exciting moment for me, because although I had heard about a bai jia bei tradition, and we had seen new ones being made at the village we visited yesterday, I had never seen an old one. This is the confirmation I've been looking for that this is a tradition that has been around a long time.

It is a small, fairly plain quilt, but it is wonderful to me because it was made especially for a child's everyday use. It is evidence of an embedded tradition, proof that patchwork bedcovers are not simply a tourist market craft. Even if we find nothing else in our remaining days, I'm feeling like we've had some true success on this research trip.

It was a really good day, and I am so grateful to our XJTU Art Museum partners -- they've been wonderful collaborators on this project.

Marin Hanson is the Curator of Exhibitions at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds undergraduate degrees from Grinnell College and Northern Illinois University and earned her MA in museum studies and textile history with a quilt studies emphasis from UNL. She is currently pursuing doctoral research on cross-cultural quiltmaking practices, with particular emphasis on China and the United States.

Another Wonder of the World?

By Amanda Lensch
UNL Graduate Student

Of course! We saw and conquered the Terra Cotta Warriors, located just outside of Xi’an.

Holy cow, what a sight!

In 221, Qin Shihuangdi (no I can’t say this either) united all of the separate kingdoms of China in 221 BC, declaring himself the emperor. During his reign he demanded that an elaborate tomb be made with plenty of warriors to stand guard after he entered into the afterlife. They were made by craftsmen and slaves of his day.

The site wasn’t discovered until a farmer decided to drill a well in 1974, some two thousand years later!

To date, there are more than 8,000 warriors that have been discovered, and excavation continues. By all appearances, these anthropologists have a lot of job security!

Anyway, the awesome thing about them is every single soldier is unique – as in different faces, different hands, and apparently even different stylized finger nails (or at least this is what our guide said). The craftsmanship on these pieces is unbelievable! The theory is each man is modeled after an actual soldier. I can’t decide if this is really really cool, or creepy… In terms of research, a whole host of things can be examined. Rank can be identified through hair and clothing styles, types of weapons, who was on the ‘front lines’, etc… The list goes on.

Three Fun facts about the Terra Cotta Warriors:

1. The armor of the original/live soldiers was made out of leather, and if you happened to be lucky enough to be of higher rank, you may get multiple layers of armor. Personally, I don’t know just how much good leather would do against an arrow, but it must have been the best option.
2. All of the terra cotta pieces were originally painted! But once excavation started and these pieces were exposed to oxygen, the color disappeared. They had used different minerals to paint the soldiers in vivid colors, but oxidation occurred, eliminating the color. They are trying to determine ways to prevent this from happening to the soldiers who haven’t been uncovered yet.
3. Due to the roof collapsing, among other issues, most of the warriors were found in broken pieces. Sometimes hundreds of pieces, thus providing a giant puzzle to those working on this excavation project.

After hitting two of the eight wonders of the world in one week, I think it’s time to start planning trips to see the other six! Anyone want to join?

Amanda Lensch is working on a master’s in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor’s degree in apparel merchandising, design and production with an emphasis in museum studies and a minor in entrepreneurial studies from Iowa State University. She is a graduate assistant working in collections at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum and previously interned at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky., and Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Say What?

Sometimes Jack and Marin resorted to writing down their words
using Chinese characters. That made sharing meanings easier.

By Cindy DeLong
UNL Graduate Student

Language has always amazed me. It is astounding that humans have developed such a sophisticated method of communication using spoken and written words. It's something we take for granted. When you arrive in a country that speaks another tongue, language (or lack of it) is in your face all the time. So it has been for me on this journey in China. 

I won't lie, I'm having a hard time. I must have a mental block or something. My brain just won't process the words. I can't even repeat the sounds. I've learned to say hello and thank you in Chinese. That's it and sometimes I have to think about that. It's almost embarrassing.

But, the truth is that Chinese is very different and the sounds are different. I now have sympathy instead of contempt for newcomers to America that can't say "t," "r" or some other sound.

Chinese characters written in calligraphy.

Chinese is complicated and as you know is represented by characters unlike the alphabet we are familiar with in the U.S. Right after the Cultural Revolution in 1949, the Pinyin Romanization System was developed that converted characters to letters used by Westerners. We have a representation of the Chinese words, but it's not very accurate. For example, the Emperor Qin is pronounced "Chin." The sounds are different than our English words, but even the same sounds have been spelled in a way we can't accurately interpret. 

Beyond the sounds, there's the issue of translation. Luckily Marin knows some Chinese language. Every day, she converses with Jack, our wonderful guide and escort from the Xi'an Jiaotong University Museum. They chatter back and forth about where we are going, who we are meeting, etc. Luckily too, Jack speaks great English. Still, sometimes it's difficult for him and Marin to find congruent words from English to Chinese and vice versa.

For example, I asked about the Chinese word for seamstress or tailor. Marin and Jack had quite a chat about it. They don't have a word that describes someone who sews. They finally came up with "cai feng" which translates to "cut-sew." It's a generic term, and it fits, but it's not specific. 

Even between the Chinese themselves, communication is not always so easy. The other day, Jack was chatting with a villager, and he had to pull out his Chinese dictionary (an app of course on his phone) and look up words several times. It seems normal for Marin to do that, because Chinese is not her first language. But because there are so many different dialects, and the same Chinese word can have multiple meanings (up to 100 or more) sometimes conversations require more work than English does.

In the Chinese tongue, there are four "tones." The same word can be spoken in each tone and have completely different meanings.

On the forehead of this tiger hat is the "wong" character.
Wong translates as the word "king," which illustrates the
importance of little boys, who wear tiger hats.

The words for bat and luck are the same, only a different tone. Because of that, a bat is considered good luck. The Chinese word for the number four is the same as the word for die or dead, but they are pronounced in different tones. Therefore the number four is considered bad, because it is equated with death. 

You can see that Chinese culture is full of symbolism and quite a bit of superstition.  

It's a little odd to listen to the chatter of a language you can't understand. I can't say I have become accustomed to it, but at least we have found a way to communicate. Well, Marin and Jack can communicate anyway.

Me? I just rely on Marin to "translate" or explain what's going on. Once again, Thank goodness for Marin!


Cindy DeLong is working on a master's degree in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor of sciences in home economics (clothing and textiles) and journalism from the University of Missouri. She has worked at the New England Quilt Museum as a curatorial intern and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum as a collections intern.

Demos

By Marin Hanson

Curator of Exhibitions

Today, we went to a village called Wang Jian, where we met a woman who makes bai jia bei -- "one hundred families quilts," which are based on the old tradition of making a patchwork quilt from pieces of fabric donated by many different families. No longer made from donated fabric, they still evoke the idea of the original. Unfortunately, according to Jack Zhang, our museum colleague, the old versions don't seem to exist anymore, even in the small villages.

The quilts our hostess in Wang Jian makes are based on a block we would call a Pineapple Log Cabin in the U.S. What they call it here is "ba gua," which refers to a set of eight symbols essential to Daoist philosophy. The symbols are often arranged in an octagon shape, much like the eight sides of the blocks the maker has sewn together in this quilt:

We were lucky enough to have our hostess give us a demonstration of how she makes the appliqued and embroidered medallions she often places in the center of her quilts:

It was particularly interesting to learn that she uses recycled cardboard as the base of the medallions, wrapping it with fabric and then apppliqueing and embroidering through both layers. The cardboard seems to usually be old cigarette cartons!

We will be coming back to the U.S. with two new beautiful pieces for the IQSCM collections. Although they are made mainly for the tourist market, we feel they are good representations of how this tradition has evolved and how it is able to live on.

Marin Hanson is the Curator of Exhibitions at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds undergraduate degrees from Grinnell College and Northern Illinois University and earned her MA in museum studies and textile history with a quilt studies emphasis from UNL. She is currently pursuing doctoral research on cross-cultural quiltmaking practices, with particular emphasis on China and the United States.

Enjoying the Local Cuisine

Enjoying lunch in Li Huilian's home in a village near Baoji, China.

By Cindy DeLong
UNL Graduate Student

Now this was the GOOD shrimp, not the crunchy bugs.

Yesterday, we went to a village called Da Zhai Cun to visit some craftswomen. When we arrived we were invited in and offered cigarettes and tea. We passed on the cigarettes, but of course had tea. Later, after we had looked at her work, Li Huilian invited us to stay for lunch -- in her home. Yes, we actually ate lunch in the home of a craftswoman in a small village in China. My goodness that does sound exotic. She served us large bowls of noodles with tofu, pork, spices, vegetables, a nice broth AND chopsticks. Yes, chopsticks and noodles. It can be done, although using different etiquette than we would use in Nebraska. 

The first evening we arrived in Beijing last week, we went out to dinner to a fairly nice restaurant. We each ordered a dish and something to drink. The Chinese custom is to serve food family style so everyone shares and gets a little bit of everything. So when Amanda ordered shrimp, we all shared it and so on. A bowl of rice is served to each person. We used chopsticks to pick up the food, shrimp, pork, etc. and put it in the bowl of rice, then it's eaten from there. It is considered polite to hold the rice bowl up to close to your face, and to drink from your bowl if there is broth. It's okay to slurp soup and noodles! It's considered good manners to do these things we would never do at home. 

Before we arrived, I really worried about the food. I have been to China before, many years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't have a good food experience, and I was a little skeptical this time around.
Let's just say I came prepared with more than two or three granola bars in my suitcase.

However, I must say the food has been out of this world. Whether fine dining or in a villager's home, it's all been very, very good. Well, we won't count last week when Amanda ordered shrimp again (she keeps doing that). When the dish came it looked like bugs. No kidding. The "shrimp" were the size of peanuts and I swear they had lots of legs plus they were crunchy. I know because I ate some!

Thank goodness Marin arrived to help decipher
the menu. It's sure a good thing they have pictures!

Besides that it's all been good, very good. And much of it I have never had before. Like squid or octopus -- we weren't sure which -- was prepared with celery and scallions. The spices and cooking techniques here make the food delicious. The "Chinese food" we have in the U.S. isn't like this at all. In fact, I don't know if I will be able to eat takeout Chinese from my (formerly) favorite China Wok anymore. It just wouldn't seem right. 

The food prices are low. On Sunday night, after the market in Beijing we had a nice dinner with more food than we could eat. Our total bill was 164 RMB, which is about $7 each. That included four dishes and beverages for all of us. Of course, fancy restaurants with atmosphere and fancier dishes will cost you more just as they do at home. There is no tipping at restaurants in China. I don't know why, but it works just fine for me.  

We've eaten everything from noodles in a villager's home to banquet food served on a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table (yes, they keep bringing more and more and more food!) to a very nice fine dining restaurant, to a vegetarian restaurant, to McDonald's (well... one morning for a quick breakfast) to tonight's dinner -- the Chinese version of pizza.

It's all been wonderful and to me a GREAT surprise and bonus for this trip.

Cindy DeLong is working on a master's degree in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies at UNL. She has a bachelor of sciences in home economics (clothing and textiles) and journalism from the University of Missouri. She has worked at the New England Quilt Museum as a curatorial intern and the International Quilt Study Center & Museum as a collections intern.